Holiday Agenda Item

We have never made Gingerbread Men Cookies before... so when my girls and I had a "Planning Meeting" before the trip, they requested this be added to the trip agenda.

I decided that...

baking Gingerbread men cookies exudes holiday yum and happiness.

PS. This really is my last post from the cabin-dealio.

Top 10 List

Top 10 Reasons we loved going with the Statens to the cabin for Thanksgiving:

#10

Hot Chocolate, all the time.

#9

Lots of Crafts...

-HAND TURKEY CONTEST-

#8

A break from stress.

#7

PEOPLE EVERYWHERE!

(And if Bruce is napping on the couch Christine is probably going to take a picture of all 6 of his kids sitting on him at the same time)

#6

FOOD EVERYWHERE!

(Thanksgiving rolls rising in the closet)

#5

Babies bathing in sinks.

#4

Emma and Morgan dance performances

#3

WAY too many treats on the agenda

(ha ha)

#2

GIRLS LOFT!

#1

Eating Thanksgiving dinner

with people so special to us,

our kids think they're cousins!

Thankful Tree...

And FINALLY I am posting about our:

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CABIN TRIP in Pinetop for Thanksgiving!

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We went up there with our family BFF's the Statens.

They have 5 kids ranging from 3-17, crazy people like us.

Wednesday before Thanksgiving they got to the cabin late at night after us... but don't worry we still stayed up until the wee hours of the morning making pies for the next days feast.

And you KNOW its Thanksgiving cuz the fellas set their alarms to put the TURKEYS in the oven -AND- they're startin potatoes below...

**P.S. Mashed potatoes is just so a "Man Job" at our house.

**P.S.S Yes, 2 turkeys, 1 regular bird and 1 Turducken,

of course the Turducken was Bruce's.

Wanna see why the kids, Christine and I are too busy to help

with the cooking at this moment? Its in the video below.

hint hint: thankful tree

I loved that we did an 8+ foot thankful tree. So beautiful to have on the wall all weekend symbolizing our gratitude. Everyone there had to make 10 different leaves saying what they were thankful for.

Everyone was pretty proud of our CREATION.

WINTER FORMAL

Ahhh, these ladies are so DARLING! Haley came to get Ashlin so they could go together to pick up their dates for WINTER FORMAL!

Then they went to the Cordners house for pictures with all the group and dinner before they hit the dance. Ashlin's date was a charming young man named Brandt.

(my personal favorite below, ha ha)

Aaaand the whole group...

**I cannot get enough of how classy and elegant and beautiful these girls look in their modest dresses. And TRUST me, it is not an easy task to find dresses this modest. It is not the norm, so to see all of them in the same room dressed as classy as this warms my heart.

After the dance they all came back to our house to watch "The Grinch" cartoon on the projector/big screen in our living room, with the fire in the fireplace, and hot chocolate and cookies waiting in the kitchen. So fun to have all these beautifully dressed boys and girls at our house.

(I had to take this picture to stop all the snuggling going on...

ha ha, just kidding, I just wanted a picture)

Sing Out again!

Tonight Lily's school had a Christmas Concert. She has been so excited about this for weeks. She is in love with her music teacher (you can see the adoration in her eyes below) and she loves to sing. I had to pick Emma up early from piano, Dallin had to postpone guitar lessons and Ashlin came straight from a nail appointment... but Bruce, me, all our kids, plus Aunt Chrissy went to see Lily sing with her Kindergarten class!

Look how she shines.

Those were the closest pictures I could get with my camera... then my sister-in-zion Alisa emailed me the below pictures she took of Lily from their front row seats. SO CUTE!

↑↑↑↑

(I don't know who the boy is on her left, but he's so cute, I want her to marry him)

I love Christmas Concerts.

(Especially when they really sing about the baby Jesus,

and especially when its my little Lily singing)